Rai journo sues over claims bombing was staged to benefit him

Rai investigative journalist Sigfrido

Ranucci on Monday said he was suing for defamation unnamed

commentators and politicians who have claimed that he staged a

bomb attack on his home in order to benefit from it.

Prosecutors have put controversial businessman, restaurateur and

former journalist Valter Lavitola, a friend of Ranucci's, under

investigation for allegedly commissioning the bomb attack at

Ranucci's home last

year.

Carabinieri police arrested four people accused of

carrying out the attack, in which a bomb was detonated in front

of the gate to the journalist's home in Pomezia, near Rome, on

October 16, 2025, destroying two cars parked on the street, his

and his daughter's, and damaging a wall.

They were allegedly paid several thousand euros to carry out the

attack.

Ranucci, 64, has said he found it hard to believe that a friend

and former colleague like Lavitola could have meant him or his

family any harm.

He said he was convinced that the 60-year-old founder, editor

and publisher of Socialist daily L'Avanti! was innocent.

Lavitola has been at the centre of many top political and

business corruption stories over the years.

These include: a Monte Carlo house whose purchase sank former

post-fascist Berlusconi protegé Gianfranco Fini's political

career; the buying and selling of Senators to bring down a

centre-left government; the attempted extortion of Silvio

Berlusconi over a ring of escorts at his 'elegant dinners';

kickbacks for contracts in Panama; and scams involving

publishing funds.

Several right-wing politicians and political commentators have

suggested in recent days that the attack on Ranucci was staged

to boost the profile and popularity of the journalist and his

show, Report, which delves into crime and corruption and which

has run many exposes on the mafia.

On Monday Ranucci's lawyer issued the following statement:

"In relation to the dissemination of statements, press articles,

conjectures, and insinuations that have transformed, through

explicit allusions, the victim of the serious attack into its

alleged beneficiary, through expressions that assert or suggest

a "fake attack" and other similar formulations and consequent

advantages, the human and professional repercussions of which

are of unprecedented gravity, Mr Sigfrido Ranucci has filed a

complaint and a suit for aggravated defamation and other

crimes."

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